Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Pathways to Positive: Reinventing the Future

By Susie Crossland-Dwyer

Almost exactly two years ago I had a cycling accident.
Thursday evenings had become a routine to ride with a local group out of Element Cycles. I was helping lead a
couple of new riders down one of Cincinnati’s biggest hills, Miami Road, when a
car ran a stop sign and pulled out in front of me. I had actually prefaced our
descent with the commentary to the group, “Be very careful on this hill. Take
it slow. Last year Chris crashed going too fast and had a third degree
separation in his shoulder as a result.” But, lighting struck twice as I
slammed on my brakes to avoid being t-boned by the car and went over my
handlebars landing on my head at 35 mph. We took an ambulance straight to
Tri-Health hospital. After hours of waiting for CAT scan and x-ray results, I was sent
home with negative tests (apart from a severe concussion), anti-nausea
medication, and a prescription to “take it easy.” After what felt like a brush
with death, I knew I would have to do more than that. Despite having opened
studio s two months earlier and FREAKING OUT about the amount of work to be done,
I would need to go above and beyond doctor’s orders for rest.

I'm smiling but the helmet tells the real story of the damage done.

For days afterwards, I couldn’t lift my head on my own to sit
up. For weeks afterward, I would need Chris’s help driving me to and from work
as well as with performing routine tasks. Two years later, I’m still working
hard to stay on top of the residual issues with my head and neck.

This week I had an “ah-ha!” moment after my semi-weekly physical
therapy treatment with Eric Oliver. In short, we figured out that I was under-using some muscles
of my neck and over-using others as a result of the patterns I’d created to
function and protect myself post-crash. The simple solution that I had failed
to execute these two years was to create new neuromuscular (brain to muscle)
pathways for my body to function in its most optimal, efficient manner.

Wow, was it really that simple? I had been doing stretching,
Pilates, massage, cranial-sacral work, trigger point therapy, physical therapy
(all which helped tremendously) but the thing I had failed to do was create new neuro-pathways. I mean, c’mon, recognizing the body's patterns is my job and
I pride myself on quickly seeing others’ good and bad habits! How did I miss seeing this? It is with my realization that I begin to question how
automatic and static my daily patterns are. How many other neural
pathways have
I failed to create simply out of habit and, dare I say, laziness? And,
if this pattern is pervasive, how do I go about breaking through those
barriers to new thinking and doing? Time will tell how effectively I’m re-training my muscles through
conscious and manual activation but, yes-- it may just be that simple.

central and peripheral nervous system

For many years, even up until the last decade, science
concluded that the brain wasn’t changeable and that the creation of new neurons
was impossible. It was only recently that “a few iconoclastic neuroscientists
challenged the paradigm that the adult brain cannot change and made discovery
after discovery that, to the contrary, it retains stunning powers of
neuroplasticity. The brain can indeed be rewired. It can expand the area that
is wired to move fingers, forging new connections that underpin the dexterity
of an accomplished violinist. It can activate long-dormant wires and run new
cables like an electrician bringing an old house up to code, so that regions that
once saw can instead feel or hear. The adult brain, in short, retains much of
the plasticity of the developing brain, including the power to repair damaged
regions, to grow new neurons, to rezone regions that performed one task and
have them assume a new task, to change the circuitry that weaves neurons into
the networks that allow us to remember, feel, suffer think, imagine and dream. ”

Enrique & J.Lo Chicago's United Center, 2012

It is in the same week that Chris and I ventured to Chicago
to see one of our shared favorite artists, Enrique Iglesias, in concert. Dorky, I know, but his music has followed us through the 17 years of our relationship and now when we listen to it, it tells us the history of our past together. Dorky, but really romantic.

Hours
of driving to the Windy City led us to read aloud some of Chicago’s founding
history. It's history tells the story of how it went from unsalvagable swamp land to an architectural and historical wonder of the Midwest. “Make no little plans”, was stated by one of the
city’s founders, Daniel Burnham. It stuck out at me and AGAIN begged the question: how many of our 100
billion neurons and 100 trillion connections in the brain are we actually
using? Do we continue to have a founder-like view of the world or have we
stopped trying at innovation because the world looks/seems complete and we've let our brain take rest?

With my clients I often use the analogy of a path in a field that
you've traveled many times. The route is visible, the grass is flattened
and worn down by repeated use. It's comfortable, it's familiar, you
know where it leads and what to expect along the way. A new path feels
weird under the feet the first few times; you might step on something
you don't like or discover something neat that you didn't know was
there. You just have to travel down the new path a few times before you
know how it will work for you and if you like it. Give it a chance.

The wildly amazing thing about the brain is that the more new
paths in the grass you create, the more it encourages you to keep treading
new territory and, before you know it, the field is covered in a web of
new possibilities. So, perhaps, it's just sustaining the few uncomfortable first tries and then letting the wheel turn almost
unassisted.

It's been several weeks now and I've been experimenting on myself. As is most always the case, step #1 was recognizing the issue.

Step #2 then became a mental pep-talk to the muscles on my neck. "Okay, guys you've been slacking for good a reason but it's time to go back to doing what you are meant to do."

Step #3 was encouraging new patterns in a tactile way. Each week before my long runs, Eric (or husband Chris) was taping my neck as shown below to a) encourage correct usage of my shoulder, neck, and back muscles; b) serve as a reminder when my posture or head position breaks down mid-run (the tape literally pulls and I can feel I'm off center as my head tends to float to the right); c) increase blood flow to the areas where the tape sits.

You've seen it in the Olympics b/c kinesio tape works wonders.

Real Ease neck cradle feels like heaven.

Step #4 has become re-enforcing the new patterns by setting my alarm to do posture checks throughout the day. Or, if pain starts to show up, immediately treating it with stretching or trigger point massage. On my short runs I've also started to rhythmically, and somewhat forcefully, tap on places of my neck that I am re-training to work a bit harder to restore balance.

And step #5 is another method of staying ahead of the curve. Chris and I have made it part of our bed-time routine to pro-actively treat our "bad" spots. He has foot issues and massages it while I put my head in my "neck cradle" which essentially takes the pressure of off my spine and into my occiputs.

The wheel is turning and I've begun to notice an improvement. Will the changes last? Who knows. Will every new pattern or way of thinking in life be this easily created? Doubtful. But, if nothing else, it becomes a fun experiment in potential. This method of creation shows me what's possible of the conscious mind. My next experiment in new behavior and changing the BIG PROBLEMS in life becomes addressing the subconscious--the thing that controls 96% of how we make decisions and whether or not new behavior sticks. But that's a beast for another blog.

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about Susie

After graduating from Miami, University, Oxford, OH, Susie co-founded a life coaching company, ikigai (Japanese for “that which makes life most worth living”) to help others clarify and pursue their life goals. Through the process of leading others she discovered her own purpose: to help individuals find confidence and strength through fitness and healthy living.
In 2010 she started studio s, a boutique-style fitness facility in Cincinnati offering Personal Training, Spinning and Pilates. Featuring programs rooted in the community and classes infused with philosophical elements, studio s is a breeding ground for others to find and pursue their passions.
In addition to studio s, she has gone in search of her own potential by participating in marathons/triathlons, completing IRONMAN, and a 50-mile ultra marathon. Each event or adventure teaches her more about herself, the people in her life, and the universe.
She is a certified Personal Trainer with ACE, a Group Exercise instructor with AFAA, a Pilates Mat instructor with PHI Pilates, a Pilates Reformer instructor with Peak Pilates and holds a lifetime certification in Spinning from Mad Dogg Athletics.